The recent Las Vegas mass shooting has us reflecting on guns in America and, because our habitus is the college campus, guns on university/college grounds. So this week’s links round-up brings together a few sources on this issue so that we can all be better informed:
History
Tower: A 2016 documentary about what’s seen as the first mass school shooting in the U.S.–a 1966 event at the University of Texas, Austin, that left 16 dead and 3 dozen wounded.
Recent-day
You might have heard of the “Cocks not Glocks” protest that happened at University of Texas at Austin last year. The symbol of the dildo was not chosen lightly. Students were drawing on a history of the absurdity that Texas outlaws the public display of dildos but not guns (covered in the 2002 documentary Dildo Diaries). Protest wasn’t limited to students. A dean of the school of architecture resigned at least in part due to the handgun laws and a professor is protesting them by wearing full combat gear in class.
In Kansas, at the end of the 2016-17 school year, a tenured professor resigned very publicly over similar new laws allowing guns on campus. Those laws started being enforced this last July, leading to a second professor in Kansas protesting by wearing a bulletproof vest to class, to bring attention to the issue of guns on campus.
You can look here for information about the various laws in different states about guns on college and university campuses. And this May 2017 article in the Atlantic provides insight into the complexities and burdens of enforcing gun laws on campuses.
Down With Brown 
Thank you for this. At the risk of sounding to flippant on a life-and-death issue, here’s my two cents’ worth: If someone advocates for students’ right to carry guns on campus, then I had better not hear that “someone” complaining about grade inflation.
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My profs at UT sued over campus carry: props to fierce warriors Lisa Lynn Moore and Mia Carter.
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